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| Photo: OC-Travel |
This year I was privileged to lead a pilgrimage through Poland marking the 60th anniversary of the episcopal consecration of Pope St. John Paul II. Interestingly enough, there are still people alive who were there on Wawel Hill on that historic day when the saint was ordained bishop on September 28, 1958.
This photo I took in the museum at his birthplace in nearby Wadowice, a village west of Krakow. Incidentally, the museum has been recently renovated in preparation for the past World Youth Day in Poland and has been immensely improved. The upper floor of the museum contains a variety of display cases that showcase various items of liturgical interest that I will be posting in the coming days.
This photo is unique. It displays the simplex mitre and gloves identified as having been used in the ordination rite. In many ways these are living relics, a clear link with the past. I presume these items were made in Poland with great care by Polish nuns in the weeks before the ordination. They are definitely in a modern, medievalist style. Such beauty spoken to us through the liturgy! In short, beauty in the liturgy teaches us and our ancestors fed on it. The higher forms of culture have always been orientated toward the ideal of spiritual knowledge while the true object of education has always been the cultivation of the spiritual faculties of the baptized person. Let us always look to the past as prologue and worship in the manner of our ancestors.
